Article packaging mechanism utilizing an adhesive tape

ABSTRACT

An article packaging mechanism utilizing an adhesive tape having an adhesive coating on one side only, the tape being fed from a supply reel or roll in a feed direction to an article receiving station in which a non-adhesive side of the tape is slidable over an outwardly projecting first finger member, the adhesive side being exposed. Beyond the article receiving station, the leading end of the tape is positioned between the end portion of the first finger and an overlapping end portion of an inwardly projecting finger, these end portions being resiliently pressed toward each other so that the leading end of the tape will adhere to the end portion of the second finger member. The received article adheres to the tape, and when moved together with it to a position beyond the receiving station between the overlapping finger portions, the tape will be reversely looped within a loopforming space formed by one of the fingers, and carried around the article to provide an adhesively secured band therearound with outwardly projecting adhered end portions which can be severed at a predetermined length by translatory lateral movement against an adjacent cutting edge at the end terminus of the first finger member.

United States Patent 1 West [ ARTICLE PACKAGING MECHANISM UTILIZING ANADHESIVE TAPE [76] Inventor: William S. West, 120 S. Sierra Madre, Apt.202, Pasadena, Calif. 91107 [22] Filed: Mar. 18,1971

[21] Appl.No.: 125,533

[52] US. Cl ..53/l3S, 53/198 A, 156/468 [51] Int. Cl. ..B65b 51/06, B65b51/08 [58] Field of Search ..53/3, 14, 135, 198 R,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 9/1956 Young, Jr ..$3/198 A12/1965 Casey ..53/l98 A X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [451 Apr. 17,1973 [57 ABSTRACT An article packaging mechanism utilizing an adhesivetape having an adhesive coating on one side only, the tape being fedfrom a supply reel or roll in a feed direction to an article receivingstation in which a non-adhesive side of the tape is slidable over an outwardly projecting first finger member, the adhesive side being exposed.Beyond the article receiving station, the leading end of the tape ispositioned between the end portion of the first finger and anoverlapping end portion of an inwardly projecting finger, these endportions being resiliently pressed toward each other so that the leadingend of the tape will adhere to the end portion of the second fingermember. The received article adheres to the tape, and when movedtogether with it to a position beyond the receiving station between theoverlapping finger portions, the tape will be reversely looped within aloop-forming space formed by one of the fingers, and carried around thearticle to provide an adhesively secured band therearound with outwardlyprojecting adhered end portions which can be severed at a predeterminedlength by translatory lateral movement against an adjacent cutting edgeat the end terminus of the first finger member.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PAIENTED AFRITISTE 3 727, 368

FIG. 1.

W//AM 5. W657 INVENTOR WHANN MCAMNIGAL BY A 7fomcy5 for AppficanfBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the fieldof packag- More specifically, the present invention is particularlyconcerned with the type of packaging, wherein the packaging material orthe material to be packaged may be assembled or gathered into a compactgroup or mass which can be held in such condition by means of a bandingelement. As exemplary, the product may be placed in a plastic bag withthe plastic being gathered at the open end of the bag, or the materialmay be placed within a sheet of plastic which would be gathered at thesides. In both of these examples the bag or gathered ends of the sheetmaterial would be secured by means of some type of retaining band, stripor holding device.

Heretofore, a number of arrangements have been util-j ized, which may bebriefly discussed as follows:

a. Tie strips of various types of material have been used to hold theends of a gathered bag, for example, such as might be used for thepackaging of a loaf of bread. One form of well known strip constructionembodies a strip which is formed by folded paper, plastic or othermaterial, and quite often is provided with an inner wire insert toprovide additional strength and aid in providing an effective retainingband, when the ends of the strip are twisted together.

b. Another known device, which serves a similar purpose to thatdescribed above, is in the form of a small piece of flat plastic orother suitable material which is provided with an edge-opening notchwhich provides spaced side fingers, these fingers usually being providedwith a pointed projection to aid in holding the device when the gatheredbag material is forced into the opening.

c. Other arrangements have comprised the use of split metal rings orstaples which are applied around the gathered packaging material bymeans of a suitable tool, such as a hand gun.

In general the above noted known devices and arrangements, althoughproviding an effective securing means, embody an undesirable inherentdisadvantage in that the use of separate ties and clips necessitate thestorage or handling of a multiplicity of elements which are not easilymade available to the user, particularly in a public place. Further, inarrangements which utilize the split metal rings, staples and the like,which are applied by a hand operated tool, the installation not only hasa multiplicity of securing elements to handle, but is expensivein thatthe tool or hand gun for such securing members is a relatively expensiveitem.

In the present invention, the disclosed mechanism overcomes the inherentdisadvantages of the above noted arrangements by providing a simplemechanism which can be of a, hand portable type, and which utilizes anadhesive tape supplied from a roll carried by the device, and which bymeans of an extremely simple applying mechanism provides a supply ofbanding material which will take care of a great number of packagingoperations without having to be replenished.

2 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally tomechanism for the packaging of articles, produce, materials and etc.,and is more particularly concerned with mechanism for such purpose whichutilizes an adhesive tape as a securing or banding medium.

It is one object of the herein described invention to provide arelatively low cost packaging mechanism utilizing an adhesive tape as asecuring or banding medium; which is of simple construction with aminimum of moving parts; which is easily and rapidly operable; and whichis capable of being embodied into a lightweight portable self-containedhand device.

A further object is to provide a simple relatively inexpensive packagingmechanism of the above noted type; which has a broad application in thepackaging field; and which is susceptible of use for applying anadhesive binding tape to a variety of packaging materials, such aspaper, plastic, cloth and the like, or directly around the articles orelements to bind them into a secure package or bundle.

Another object is to provide a novel packaging mechanism which finds usein a variety ,of different locations, such as homes, produce departmentsof stores and markets, bakeries, and the like, and in particular whereit is desirous of providing a readily accessible device for quicklyandeasily securing packaging sheet materials, bags, containers, and thelike, by means of a retaining band around a gathered portion of thematerial.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be brought out inthe following part of the specification, wherein detailed description isfor the purpose of fully disclosing the invention without placinglimitations thereon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENTReferring more specifically to the drawings, for illustrative purposes,the invention is shown in FIG. 1 as being embodied in a packagingmechanism, as generally indicated by the numeral 10, which is ofextremely simple construction with a minimum of moving Morespecifically, the mechanism of the present invention includes a framestructure A, which carries an auxiliary projecting frame B at one endprovided with tape applying components which are adapted to receive anadhesive tape C from a source of supply, in this case a tape reel orroll 11.

The frame structure A is of generally transverse L- shaped configurationand may be constructed of any suitable material, but is preferably madeof a strong light plastic such as plexiglass. The frame structure A isfabricated to provide a back wall 12 which is in upstanding relation toa longitudinally extending bottom wall 13 which provides a mounting basesurface when it is desired to support the mechanism in afixed position.This may be done by providing an adhesive strip 13 in an underlyingposition on the under surface of the bottom wall. Associated andcooperating with the back wall 12 at the left end of the framestructure, as seen in FIG. 1, there is provided a spaced end side wall14 of relatively shorter length than the back wall. However, it will beseen that the end portions of the wall 12 and wall 14 have a similarconfiguration, for a purpose which will later be described.

The auxiliary frame B comprises a generally rectangular frame which isconstructed from a suitable, preferably metallic resilient strapmaterial which is bent or otherwise fabricated to provide relativelylong bottom and top sides 15 and 16, respectively, which extend betweenrelatively short inner and outer end sides 17 and 18, respectively.

The auxiliary frame B is anchored to the frame structure A so as toproject therefrom, the inner end side 17 being sandwiched between a pairof end walls 19 and 20 which span the space between the back wall 12 andend side wall 14 and are bonded or otherwise secured thereto so as toprovide a rigid support.

The strap material from which the frame B is formed is overlapped in itsend portions to provide at the top side 16 a pair of cooperativelyassociated first and second finger members 21 and 22, respectively. Themember 21 being at the anchored end of the frame B is substantiallyrigid, while the member 22 is arranged to be resiliently pressed againstthe upper surface of the member 21. Resiliently applied pressure isobtained by constructing the outer end side 18 of the frame so as to belongitudinally bowed. v 7

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the tape C is fed from the roll 11 in afeeding direction so as to pass between the confronting end surfacefaces of the first and second finger members. The roll 11 is rotatablycarried by a projecting pin 23 on the back wall 12, this pin beingaligned substantially with the extended plane of the movement path ofthe tape between the members 21 and 22. The pin 23 is positioned withina circular opening of a ring core member on which the tape is wound intoa roll so that with the periphery at the left side of the rollpositioned between the walls 12 and 14, the tape C may be stripped fromthe roll which will be free to rotate in a position normally above thebottom wall 13.

As previously explained, the tape C is provided with an adhesive on onesurface. In feeding the tape from the roll, the opposite non-adhesivesurface of the tape is carried over the upper surface of the member 21which forms a support for the tape. The upper exposed adhesive surface25 (FIG. 2) is exposed, and at the outer end portion of the member 21,the adhesive face of the tape C will be pressure engaged with anadjacent surface portion 26 of the member 22.

inwardly of the surface portion 26, the end terminal portion of thefinger member 22 is arched away from the finger 21 to provide atape-looping area or space 28 which is in communication with an entranceopening 29 formed by virtue of the spaced position of the end terminus30 from the adjacent tape.

The inner end portion of the member 22 and the adjacent edges of thewalls 12 and 14 cooperate to provide an article receiving station asgenerally indicated at 31. For guiding the article or packaging materialinto engagement with an exposed adhesive surface of the tape C, theinner end portion of the finger 22 is inclined as indicated at 32towards the tape, while the walls 12 and 14 are provided with inclinededge portions as indicated at 33.

Referring to FIGS. 3A to 3D, inclusive, the operation of the mechanismwill now be described more fully. As shown in FIG. 3A, the article ormaterial to be banded is positioned in the receiving station 31. In thiscase the material is shown as comprising a gathered plastic material 34which may comprise the open end of a bag, or gathered ends of a plasticsheet. The material is brought into engagement with the exposed adhesivesurface of the tape at the receiving station, and then the adheredmaterial and tape are moved as a unit under the end terminus 30 of themember 22 so as to carry the material into the tape-looping area 28 andat the same time begin to upwardly loop the tape as indicated at 35 awayfrom the adjacent surface of the member 21. During this movement of thematerial and tape in a feeding direction, it will be appreciated thatthe leading end portion of the tape is adhesively anchored to theadjacent surface of the member 22. During this feeding movement, it willof course be evident that the tape will be fed from the tape roll 1 1.

As shown in FIG. 3B, as more tape is fed into the looping area 28, thesize of the loop portion as indicated at 35' will be increased andcaused to adhere to the adjacent surface of the arched portion 27. Itwill also be apparent from this view that the tape ahead of theaccumulating material 34 in the looping area will cause the tape tobegin to be reversely looped so as to bring the non-adhesive adjacentsurfaces of the loop into engagement as best shown in FIG. 3C.

As shown in FIG. 3C, the compacting of the material 34 within thelooping area 28 will cause the finger 22 to resiliently flex away fromthe finger 21, and as the compacted material is further moved in afeeding direction along the upper surface of the member 21, the tapeportions on opposite sides of the material will be successivelyadhesively applied to form a circling band. During this operation, thetape on one side will be stripped away from the adjacent surface of themember 22, while on the other side the additionally required tape willbe supplied from the roll 1 1.

As shown in FIG. 3D, the thus banded material 34 is now moved along theunderside of member 22 until it abuts the outer end side 18 of the frameB. It will be noted that this position of abutment determines the lengthof outwardly projecting adhered end portions of the binding, asindicated at 36 and 37. By now swinging the material and encircling bandof tape with a translatory movement away from the member 22 to aposition as indicated in phantom lines, the end portion 37 will besevered by converging cutting edges 38a and 38b (FIG. 2) formed at theouter end terminus of the member 21. Having thus severed the tape, themember 22 is now permitted to resiliently move into adhesive engagementwith the leading end of the tape for repeating the binding operation.

If it is desired to cut off the article material on one side of theband, this can be readily accomplished by means of a cutting edge 39formed at the right end of the wall 12, as viewed in FIG. 1.

From the foregoing description and drawings, it will be clearly evidentthat the delineated objects and features of the invention will beaccomplished.

Various modifications may suggest themselves to those skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit of my invention, and hence, I do notwish to be restricted to the specific forms shown or uses mentionedexcept to the extent indicated in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an article packaging mechanism utilizing an adhesive tape:

a. a frame structure;

b. means for rotatably supporting a tape supply roll on said frame;

c. a pair of oppositely extending axially aligned first and secondfinger members carried by said frame and being positioned with theiradjacent end portions in overlapped relation, said members havingconfronting surfaces normally resiliently urged towards each other andproviding a feed path therebetween for tape from said supply roll, andsaid second finger member being deformed in its end terminus portion toprovide a looping space for the tape;

d. said tape having a non-adhesive side facing the confronting surfaceof the first finger member, and an adhesive bearing side facing theconfronting surface of the second finger and to which it will begrippingly adhered;

e. an article, receiving station adjacent the end terminus of the secondfinger member for receiving the article into adhering gripped relationwith an exposed portion of the adhesive side of said tape, whereby thearticle and tape may be advanced in a tape feed direction into said feedpath between the first and second fingers so as to loop the tape into anadhesively secured band around the article and in which said band hasoutwardly projecting end portions; and

f. a cutter adjacent the end terminus of said first finger member forsevering the projecting end portions.

2. An article packaging mechanism according to claim 1, wherein thedeformed portion of said second finger member is arched away from theadjacent face of the first finger member.

3. In an article packaging mechanism utilizing an adhesive tape: i i

a. a frame structure;

b. means for rotatably supporting a tape supply roll on said frame;

c. a pair of oppositely extending axially aligned first and secondfinger members carried by said frame and being positioned with theiradjacent end portions in overlapped relation, said members havingconfronting surfaces normally resiliently urged towards each other andproviding a feed path therebetween for tape from said supply roll, saidfinger members comprising the ends of an elongate strap which is formedinto a substantially rectangular loop with the fingers positioned on along side thereof; a a

d. means for anchoring a short side of said loop to said framestructure;

e. said tape having a non-adhesive side facing the confronting surfaceof the first finger member, and an adhesive bearing side facing theconfronting surface of the second finger and to which it will begrippingly adhered;

f. an article receiving station adjacent the end terminus of the secondfinger member for receiving the article into adhering gripped relationwith an exposed portion of the adhesive side of said tape, whereby thearticle and tape may be advanced in a tape feed direction into said feedpath between the first and second fingers so as to loop the tape into anadhesively secured band around the article and in which said band hasoutwardly projecting end portions; and

g. a cutter adjacent the end terminus of said first finger member forsevering the projecting end portions.

4. An article packaging mechanism according to claim 3, wherein theshort side opposite the anchored short side is outwardly bowed.

1. In an article packaging mechanism utilizing an adhesive tape: a. aframe structure; b. means for rotatably supporting a tape supply roll onsaid frame; c. a pair of oppositely extending axially aligned first andsecond finger members carried by said frame and being positioned withtheir adjacent end portions in overlapped relation, said members havingconfronting surfaces normally resiliently urged towards each other andproviding a feed path therebetween for tape from said supply roll, andsaid second finger member being deformed in its end terminus portion toprovide a looping space for the tape; d. said tape having a non-adhesiveside facing the confronting surface of the first finger member, and anadhesive bearing side facing the confronting surface of the secondfinger and to which it will be grippingly adhered; e. an articlereceiving station adjacent the end terminus of the second finger memberfor receiving the article into adhering gripped relation with an exposedportion of the adhesive side of said tape, whereby the article and tapemay be advanced in a tape feed direction into said feed path between thefirst and second fingers so as to loop the tape into an adhesivelysecured band around the article and in which said band has outwardlyprojecting end portions; and f. a cutter adjacent the end terminus ofsaid first finger member for severing the projecting end portions.
 2. Anarticle packaging mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the deformedportion of said second finger member is arched away from the adjacentface of the first finger member.
 3. In an article packaging mechanismutilizing an adhesive tape: a. a frame structure; b. means for rotatablysupporting a tape supply roll on said frame; c. a pair of oppositelyextending axially aligned first and second finger members carried bysaid frame and being positioned with their adjacent end portions inoverlapped relation, said members having confronting surfaces normallyresiliently urged towards each other and providing a feed paththerebetween for tape from said supply roll, said finger memberscomprising the ends of an elongate strap which is formed into asubstantially rectangular loop with the fingers positioned on a longside thereof; d. means for anchoring a short side of said loop to saidframe structure; e. said tape having a non-adhesive side facing theconfronting surface of the first finger member, and an adhesive bearingside facing the confronting surface of the second finger and to which itwill be grippingly adhered; f. an article receiving station adjacent theend terminus of the second finger member for receiving the article intoadhering gripped relation with an exposed portion of the adhesive sideof said tape, whereby the article and tape may be advanced in a tapefeed direction into said feed path between the first and second fingersso as to loop the tape into an adhesively secured band around thearticle and in which said band has outwardly projecting end portions;and g. a cutter adjacent the end terminus of said first finger memberfor severing the projecting end portions.
 4. An article packagingmechanism according to claim 3, wherein the short side opposite theanchored short side is outwardly bowed.